WIP Wednesday

 Oh, my goodness. I finished a boat load of stuff this past week. I blame the snow! 

This morning, I finished the binding on The Cool Side of the Rainbow.

Yesterday, I sewed the button on my Marine Mom tote.

 

Monday, I quilted and bound the Selvage Log Cabin.

 

I needed a break, so I crocheted this adorable blue elephant on Sunday night.

 On Saturday, I made myself a tray table ironing board.

I finished the Friendship Star on Thursday night. I've been enjoying hand stitching bindings at night while I watch TV.

 

I also finished a secret little project on Thursday. (Come back on Friday for the reveal.)

 

In progress: 

I made 48 string blocks to use as "thread" in an upcoming spools workshop.

I've made a few more Wild & Goosey blocks as leaders/enders. This one might become the primary piecing project soon.

I went to a workshop with Thomas Knauer last Wednesday which was awesome! I'm not ready to show that piece yet. It still needs some tweaking.

 I guess it's time to dig out some older WIPs. What will Tina finish next week?

Friendly Friday Finish

The Friendship Star quilt is done. Most of the blocks were collected in block swaps with two guilds: Ninigret Quilters and RI Modern Quilt Guild. It makes me so happy to have new and old friends represented in one quilt.

The Ninigret swap was a 3-month activity that started in January 2014. At the end of the year, it was my turn to gather blocks in the RIMQG bee. I started assembling the top at the end of this January. The little stars in the sashing were made from 2" squares that had been cut years ago.

I had about half of the quilting done when I ran out of thread! My Superior order arrived Tuesday, so I was able to finish the quilting yesterday. I'm really not a fan of stippling, but it works with this quilt. I like the loops in the star points and that the design in the center square looks like hearts.

The backing was pieced from some stash-busting blues and greens.

 

I love the texture of the quilting on the back.

 

To continue with the scrappy theme, the binding came out of my leftover binding bin. 

I tried to get a glamor shot on the railing with our cool window in the background, but I couldn't get the lighting right.

 

I'll have to design a quilt based on this window someday.

 

Friendship Stars

64" X 85"

Started January 2014

Completed February 2015

Blocks swapped with Ninigret Quilters and RIMQG

Scrappy WIP Wednesday

 I've been obsessively stitching for weeks now. The plus side of all this productivity is that I don't snack when I'm sewing so much, so I've lost a few pounds. Win-Win! Here's what I've been up to.

Farmer's Engineer's Wife: All 111 blocks are now done! I'm a little sick of looking at them, as cute as they are, so we're going to take a little break.

RIMQG Bee blocks for Jackie: Jackie provided the blue for her log cabins. These went in the mail today.

Wild & Goosey: Oh, how I love these blocks! Learn more about Bonnie Hunter's pattern here.

Selvage Log Cabins: This will be my entry in the RIMQG Log Cabin challenge, due in March. These blocks are really time consuming, but so worth it! Karen Griska's pattern is only $5 on Etsy. It's worth every penny!

I'm planning to set them on point. Don't mind my thready socks.

Friendship Star Swap: I quilted half of this last week before I ran out of thread. As soon as my order arrives from Superior, I'll get this finished.

Scrappy Mountain Majesties: When all the scraps were out, I cut some big squares for this project. Can't wait to get back to this one!

It's time to surf...

Friendship Stars

 My friendship star top came together over the course of Friday night and all day Saturday. I'm really excited about how scrappy it looks. 

The blocks came from swaps in two guilds. Ninigret Quilters swapped blocks last January, February and March which gave me 36 blocks. This January, it was my turn to receive blocks from my RIMQG hive, so I added 10 more blocks to the stash. I made a couple extra for a grand total of 48.

I started a Pinterest board for layout ideas. I liked the idea of creating a secondary design. I played around on EQ7 and the tiny stars in the sashing popped out. The blocks finish at 9", so I cut the sashing strips and corner squares at 2". I think the proportions work well. The top is about 65" X 86".

I pieced together a pile of leftover binding pieces, but I still haven't made a dent in that box-o-binding. It's a good thing I picked up some batting on sale at JoAnn's last week. It looks like we'll be snowed in on Tuesday- a perfect day for quilting, as long as the power stays on.

Make a Quilt, Make a Friend

 I haven't swapped anything in a few months, so I was happy to participate in the second round of the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap. You can read about my first failed attempt at making this quilt here. My partner said she likes blue, aqua and green, Kate Spain and Camille Roskelley (among other things). I tried to incorporate as many of her likes as possible.

The block is one of Camille's designs and I think a circle of friendship stars is particularly fitting for a swap. I really had fun quilting this. The center motif (and corners) is a stencil from Patsy Thompson that I had to resize to make it fit. I traced it with blue pen before I layered the top with the batting and back.

I ripped out more quilting stitches on this piece than I ever have before. One of the corner feather motifs caused a huge pucker. I didn't like my first attempt at quilting the stars, or the inner border, or the outer border! I'm glad I took the time to rip it all out and start over.

The back is nothing exciting.

I sure do hope my partner likes this one!

"Make a Friend"

Schnitzel and Boo Mini Swap- Round 2

Block Pattern: Round and Round by Camille Roskelley

Quilted feather stencil: Patsy Thompson

Started 6/16/14

Completed 6/19/14

24" square

WIP Wednesday

It feels great to make progress on sewing and home projects, but it is hard for me to maintain a high level of productivity for long. Balance is a buzz word that might play a large part in my life this year.

Finished this week: Crackers quilt for charity.

In progress: 
Clamshell pillow cover. I should be able to finish this today, and then start another one.

 Ninigret Friendship Star Swap. We had our second round of swapping last night.

Take it All with you bag. I'm going to a class this weekend to make this amazing bag with 42 pockets. There was a lot of prep work (cutting and fusing) so we can get right to work with bag construction in class.

Random:
I just got this gorgeous Riley Blake fabric in the mail. I have no idea what it will become, but I love it!

My friend, Kate, made this cute basket for me. Thanks, Kate!

And now, it's time to surf!

WIP Wednesday

 Now that the garage is cleaned out enough for Bill to park his car there, I am free to sew again. Yay!

Started & Finished: Be Mine. Read all about it in yesterday's post. Seeing it hanging in the kitchen makes me smile every time I walk in.

In Progress: Ninigret Quilters Friendship block swap. My blocks are ready for the next round of the swap at next week's meeting. I've always loved that blue and yellow batik.

These are the blocks I swapped for last month, plus a few extras of my own. Cool, right?

Next up: The Ninigret UFO challenge project for February is #6. According to my list, I need to complete this nine patch swap from 2009. Yeah, it's time!

Ongoing: We've had two snowstorms this week, with another on the way on Sunday night. I'm sick of shoveling, but it has been so pretty.

That's all for now, so it's time to link up. Have a great week!